Historians and speechwriters describe the speech as one of the most ominous inaugural addresses ever, reinforcing familiar campaign themes of American decline, in contrast to the inspirational speeches of his predecessors.

Initiatives are largely being churned out without proper review and the strategy could backfire. David Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University and a former official at the Federal Trade Commission, told Politico. “A government by edict is not a sustainable idea.”

An executive order gives the right-wing agitator, Steve Bannon, a full seat on the principals committee of the National Security Council a role usually held by Generals, in a startling elevation of a political adviser.nytimes.com(See also First 100 Days, Steve Bannon)

Trump strategist and former chair of Breitbart News Network, Steve Bannon, seen by many as the brains behind Trump's Muslim immigration ban, is elevated to a position on the National Security Council's principals' committee and people are begging someone, anyone, to please #StopPresidentBannon.newsweek.com(See also Steve Bannon, Muslim Immigration Ban)

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi describes Trump's unfounded claim of being wiretapped by President Obama as an authoritarian tactic.cnn.com(See also First 100 Days)

2017.03.15

Sen. Lindsey Graham says the FBI needs to stop stonewalling on his request to clear up wiretapping claims Trump made against his President Obama.today.com(See also First 100 Days)

2017.03.20

Ivanka Trump begins working out of a West Wing office, although she is not technically serving as a government employee, according to an attorney for the first daughter.latimes.com(See also Ivanka Trump, Nepotism)

The attorney says she will receive a government-issued phone and a security clearance for classified information.

Former Department of Justice officials and voting advocates are alarmed over a DOJ letter sent to states last week that they say could signal a forthcoming effort to kick people off voter rolls.huffingtonpost.com(See also Corruption)

This comes as national attention focuses on several states blocking a request for voter information from Trump’s commission to investigate voting fraud, which is not a widespread problem.

Trump personally met with Jessie Liu, the current deputy general counsel for the Treasury Department and who Trump tapped to be the next US attorney for the District of Columbia -- a move that sharply departs from past practice and is at odds with the understood custom of insulating US attorneys from political influence.cnn.com(See also Legal Issues, Conflicts of Interest)

White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said that he doesn't know if his relationship with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus can be repaired, and he urged Priebus to publicly prove that he has not leaked damaging information to the media.washingtonpost.com(See also Reince Priebus, Trump Cabinet)

2017.07.31

Trump has relieved Anthony Scaramucci from his role as communications director, just 10 days after initially naming Scaramucci to the role.mic.com(See also Trump Cabinet, John Kelly)

2017.08.01

Congressional Republicans moved to defuse Trump’s threat to cut off critical payments to health insurance companies, maneuvering around the president toward bipartisan legislation to shore up insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act.nytimes.com(See also Affordable Care Act, Health Care)

2017.08.02

In the first hours of the travel ban, the Trump administration officials issued clear directives: treat lawyers’ calls like “protests” and keep duly elected Congressmen out.thedailybeast.com(See also Muslim Immigration Ban)

Trump's retweet of a Fox News story claiming US satellites detected North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to a patrol boat raised concerns after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley indicated that the information in the report is classified and was leaked.cnn.com(See also North Korea, Nikki Haley)

President Donald Trump's retweet of a Fox News story claiming US satellites detected North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to a patrol boat is raising eyebrows on Tuesday after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley indicated that the information in the report is classified and was leaked.

2017.08.10

Actions by the Trump administration are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many people, according to a nonpartisan study.apnews.com(See also Health Care, Affordable Care Act)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Actions by the Trump administration are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many people, according to

The Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents it needs – in large part due to the sheer size of President Trump's family, his travel almost every weekend, and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast - as they have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.usatoday.com(See also Hypocrisy)

2017.08.23

A UN committee charged with tackling racism has issued an “early warning” over conditions in the US and urged the Trump administration to “unequivocally and unconditionally” reject discrimination.theguardian.com(See also Racism, Nationalism)

In the past decade, the only other countries that have been issued similar warnings were Burundi, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, and Nigeria.

2017.08.23

Trump at a campaign-style rally in Phoenix promised he would shut down the government if Congress does not fund a wall on the southern border.nytimes.com(See also Mexico Wall, Immigration)

The Justice Department is preventing Senate investigators from interviewing two top FBI officials who could provide first-hand testimony over the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.cnn.com(See also Conflicts of Interest, Corruption)

2017.09.15

Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised an unprecedented $107 million for a ceremony that officials promised would be “workmanlike,” and the committee pledged to give leftover funds to charity.apnews.com(See also False Statements)

Nearly eight months later, the group has helped pay for redecorating at the White House and the vice president’s residence in Washington, but nothing has yet gone to charity.

2017.09.19

In a sharp departure from his predecessors, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price last week took private jets on five separate flights for official business, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars more than commercial travel.politico.com(See also Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Price)

2017.10.11

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the White House on Wednesday seeking a new “fairer trade” deal among the United States, Canada and Mexico amid growing alarm from business leaders that President Trump is leaning toward jettisoning the North American Free Trade Agreement.washingtonpost.com(See also Foreign Policy)

Donald Trump tweeted that he may pull back federal relief workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid a staggering humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.washingtonpost.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior)

The island is still far from recovered. 83% of the island is still without power, 36% is without potable water, and 13% of grocery stores are still closed.

2017.10.13

European leaders pushed back sharply Friday against Donald Trump’s decision to strip White House backing from the Iran nuclear deal, saying the move would weaken U.S. credibility, drive a wedge within the Western alliance and hurt global efforts to address dangers from Tehran to North Korea.washingtonpost.com(See also Foreign Policy, Iran, North Korea)

2017.10.18

Donald Trump, in a personal phone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened, the father said, until this was exposed in the media.washingtonpost.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, False Statements)

2017.10.21

The Trump administration is scrambling to defend the president’s characterization of his communications with grieving military families, including rush-delivering letters from the president to the families of service members killed months ago, despite his false claim that he had called “virtually” all fallen service members’ families since his time in office.theatlantic.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, False Statements)

2017.10.23

Democratic members of Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission are voicing mounting frustration about its mission and lack of collaboration, as two of the commission’s four Democrats have written letters to its executive director, demanding basic information such as when the panel might meet again, what kind of research is being conducted by its staff and when it might send a report to the president.washingtonpost.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)

2017.10.23

Even though Donald Trump a bill in July that slapped new sanctions on Russia, the administration has since blown past an October 1 deadline to implement the sanctions, while Congress is now searching for answers as to whether the president is even planning to follow the law that they passed and he signed.thedailybeast.com(See also Trump Relationship with Russia, Russia)

2017.10.23

The State Department has reportedly revoked a visa for British citizen Bill Browder, a hedge fund manager turned human rights activist responsible for the Magnitsky Act on the same day that the Kremlin issued yet another international arrest warrant for him via Interpol.npr.org(See also Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia)

2017.10.23

Whitefish Energy, a two-year-old company, had just two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall, but from the same hometown as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, signed a $300 million contract to repair large portions of Puerto Rico's electrical infratructure.washingtonpost.com(See also Ryan Zinke, Department of the Interior)

The scale of the disaster in Puerto Rico is far larger than anything Whitefish has handled. The company has won two contracts from the Energy Department, including $172,000 to replace a metal pole structure and splice in three miles of new conductor and overhead ground wire in Arizona.

A deal reached between the government and a small Montana energy company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown prohibits the government from reviewing labor costs or profits related to the company's relief efforts in Puerto Rico, according to a leaked copy of the contract.thehill.com(See also Corruption, Ryan Zinke, Department of the Interior)

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly on Monday called Robert E. Lee “an honorable man” and said that “the lack of an ability to compromise” led to the Civil War, setting off a firestorm while implying that "men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand."washingtonpost.com(See also John Kelly, Racism)

2017.11.08

Activist investor Carl Icahn has been subpoenaed the the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York over his role as an unpaid adviser to Donald Trump on deregulation.axios.com(See also Conflicts of Interest)

At issue is Icahn's advocacy for changes to a federal bio-fuels program that would have benefited CVR Energy, in which Icahn holds an 82% ownership stake.

Republicans in Washington seemed near panic in the light of a news report in which four women said Roy S. Moore, the Republican nominee for a Senate seat in Alabama (and an evangelical Christian) had made sexual or romantic overtures to them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.nytimes.com(See also Misogyny)

“Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life,” Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on behalf of the President. “However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”

2017.11.10

An attorney whose accounting firm helped clients avoid paying billions in taxes, and whose firm had to pay more than $100 million in penalties for a tax shelter scheme, is poised to take control of the Internal Revenue Service.thedailybeast.com(See also Conflicts of Interest)

2017.11.10

Dozens of young immigrants mailed DACA renewal forms weeks before they were due, but their paperwork was delayed in the mail and then denied for being late, making them "deportable."nytimes.com(See also Immigration)

2017.11.10

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating an alleged plan involving former White House national security adviser Mike Flynn to forcibly remove a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey in return for millions of dollars.wsj.com(See also Michael Flynn, Corruption)

2017.11.11

A Trump nominee, a 36-year-old lawyer who has never tried a case and who was unanimously deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association has been approved for a lifetime federal district judgeship by the Senate Judiciary Committee.nytimes.com(See also Assaults on Government, Legal Issues)

2017.11.14

Congressional lawmakers raised concerns about Donald Trump's ability to use nuclear weapons during a hearing Capitol Hill amid bipartisan anxiety over launch process procedures and indications that the administration has considered the option of a first strike on North Korea.cnn.com(See also North Korea)

2017.11.19

The top U.S. nuclear commander said on Saturday that he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an "illegal" launch of nuclear weapons.nytimes.com(See also Department of Defense)

2017.11.20

At dinner at a lobbying hotspot with a powerful tech CEO, the national security adviser said the president has the intelligence of a “kindergartner,” according to sources.buzzfeed.com(See also H.R. McMaster)

2017.11.23

NY Attorney General Schneiderman estimated that hundreds of thousands of Americans’ identities were stolen and used in spam campaigns that support repealing net neutrality, while a new analysis reveals that at least 1.3 million comments supporting the new FCC position on net neutrality were fake.hackernoon.com(See also Legal Issues, Assaults on Civil Liberties, Net Neutrality)

Donald Trump named his budget director as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's acting leader (an agency he vowed to destroy), despite the fact that he's still the budget director and after its departing leader had taken steps to install his own choice for acting chief.nytimes.com(See also Assaults on Government)

Jared Kushner failed to disclose his role as a co-director of the Charles and Seryl Kushner Foundation from 2006 to 2015, a time when the group funded an Israeli settlement considered to be illegal under international law, on financial records he filed with the Office of Government Ethics earlier this year.newsweek.com(See also Jared Kushner, Israel, False Statements)

Yet another omission was discovered on Jared Kushner’s financial disclosure forms Friday, as news broke of his reported involvement in attempting to sway a U.N. Security Council vote before Donald Trump became president.

2017.12.04

Donald Trump endorsed a Senate candidate accused of child molestation, as nine women have accused Judge Roy Moore of sexual harassment, including some who were teenagers at the time the misconduct took place.buzzfeed.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior)

2017.12.04

The Trump Administration is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince (Betsy DeVos' brother) and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North — to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, as a means of countering “deep state” enemies.theintercept.com(See also Mike Pompeo, Assaults on Civil Liberties)

The creation of such a program raises the possibility that the effort would be used to create an intelligence apparatus to justify the Trump administration's political agenda.

2017.12.05

Defying every major ally besides Israel, Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as its capital, breaking a longstanding international consensus to refrain from doing this until Israel brokers a peace agreement with the Palestinians.buzzfeed.com(See also Israel, Foreign Policy)

2017.12.05

Donald Trump plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American Embassy there, upending nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and potentially destroying his efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians.nytimes.com(See also Israel, Jared Kushner, Muslims)

2017.12.05

Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission, after this summer's sweeping request to state officials to submit voter data, plans to create a massive voter database, which could be manipulated, leading the administration to wrongfully purge legitimate voters.washingtonpost.com(See also Fascism, Voter Suppression, Voter Fraud)

2017.12.06

House Democrats overwhelmingly joined Republicans on Wednesday to defeat an attempt to impeach Donald Trump, but 58 Democrats supported the bid to consider impeachment over the objections of House Democratic leaders, who viewed the measure as a distraction in a Republican-controlled Congress.politico.com(See also Racism, Anti-Semitism)

Nearly one year after his inauguration, Donald Trump’s approval rating sits at 35 percent, a historic low for a commander in chief in the December of his first year in office.politico.com(See also Trump Effect)

2017.12.20

Republicans are on the verge of passing the most significant overhaul of the tax code since 1986, after the Senate passed the GOP plan, cutting the corporate tax rate dramatically providing new breaks for businesses, lowering income tax bills in 2018 for the vast majority of households, though the wealthy would see far more relief than the middle class and working poor.washingtonpost.com(See also Economy, Trump Taxes, Affordable Care Act)

2017.12.28

The Trump White House saw a record number of first-year staff departures at 34%, which is unprecedented in the modern era, as the next highest first year turnover rate was 17% under Ronald Reagan in 1981.wsj.com(See also Resignations and Dismissals)

2018.01.06

Mr. Trump, seeming to respond to revelations in a new book, issued an extraordinary defense of his fitness for office, saying he's a "very stable genius."nytimes.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior)

2018.01.25

A case accusing Mr. Trump of violating the Constitution’s emoluments clauses, which prevent a president from accepting government-bestowed benefits either at home or abroad, appeared to inch forward during a lengthy hearing before a federal judge in Maryland.nytimes.com(See also Conflicts of Interest, Corruption, Legal Activity)

2018.01.29

Andrew G. McCabe abruptly stepped down on Monday as the F.B.I.’s deputy director after months of withering criticism from Donald Trump, telling friends he felt pressure from the head of the bureau to leave, adding to what has already been a chaotic upheaval at the F.B.I. under Mr. Trump, who has responded to an investigation into his campaign with broadside attacks against both the bureau and the Justice Department.nytimes.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Corruption, Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions)

2018.01.29

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be “extraordinarily reckless,” voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate, throwing fuel on an already fiery partisan conflict over the investigations into Russia’s brazen meddling in the 2016 presidential election.nytimes.com(See also Nationalism, Trump Relationship with Russia, 2016 Campaign, Assaults on Facts)

2018.01.29

The Trump administration informed lawmakers that new Russia sanctions called for in a bipartisan bill passed last year are not necessary yet because the measure is already "serving as a deterrent," despite the fact that lawmakers in both parties nudged the administration to implement sanctions legislation that passed overwhelmingly in July — with only five no votes in both the House and Senate.politico.com(See also Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia, 2016 Campaign)

2018.02.06

After Hurricane Maria, FEMA awarded an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large scale disaster relief $156 million to deliver 30 million means to Puerto Ricans, but only 50,000 were delivered and the contract was terminated.nytimes.com(See also Administration Errors, Corruption)

Tiffany Brown is the sole owner and employee of the company, Tribute Contracting LLC, who initially won the contract from FEMA.

A top official with the Department of Health and Human Services told members of Congress that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States, raising concerns they could end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives.nytimes.com(See also Department of Health and Human Services, Immigration)

Donald Trump abruptly announced that Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles would not visit the White House on Tuesday, citing the team's participation in national anthem protests.thehill.com(See also Nationalism)

2018.06.18

Inside an old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of immigrant children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing, one cage with 20 children inside, scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets.apnews.com(See also Immigration)

2018.06.18

The Trump administration said that it had separated 1,995 children from parents facing criminal prosecution for unlawfully crossing the border over a six-week period, as Donald Trump sought to shift blame for the widely criticized practice that has become the signature policy of his aggressive immigration agenda.nytimes.com(See also Immigration, Department of Homeland Security, Jeff Sessions)

2018.06.18

The United Nations’ top human rights official entered the mounting furor over the Trump administration’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents, calling for an immediate halt to a practice he condemned as abuse.nytimes.com(See also United Nations, Immigration)

2018.07.19

Donald Trump criticized the Federal Reserve on Thursday for raising interest rates, a rare rebuke by a sitting president that upends longstanding White House protocol to avoid commenting on monetary policy.nytimes.com(See also Economy)

2018.07.23

Donald Trump is considering stripping a half-dozen former national security officials of their security clearances, an unprecedented use of presidential authority to punish political rivals.cnn.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Fascism)

The White House took retaliatory action against Kaitlan Collins, a White House reporter for CNN, after Collins asked Donald Trump questions at an Oval Office photo op.money.cnn.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)

Senior American national security officials, seeking to prevent Donald Trump from upending a formal policy agreement at last month’s NATO meeting, pushed the military alliance’s ambassadors to complete it before the forum even began.nytimes.com(See also Foreign Policy)

John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, pushed NATO ambassadors to finish a critical policy document before the alliance’s summit meeting last month so the president could not reject it.

2018.08.13

There’s an under-the-radar perk being offered to staffers in President Donald Trump’s administration — discounts on Trump-branded merchandise sold at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, ranging from 15 percent off of any merchandise sold in the store, to 70 percent off clearance items.politico.com(See also Conflicts of Interest, Trump Business)

2018.08.17

In a remarkable rebuke to Donald Trump, 13 former U.S. intelligence chiefs have signed a harshly worded letter in support of former CIA Director John Brennan after Trump abruptly revoked his security clearance.latimes.com(See also Assaults on Government, Fascism)

2018.08.26

Donald Trump nixed issuing a statement that praised the heroism and life of Sen. John McCain, telling senior aides he preferred to issue a tweet that did not include any kind words for the late Arizona Republican.washingtonpost.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior)

2018.09.03

Donald Trump attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department in connection with the indictments of two GOP congressmen on corruption charges, saying that the Justice Department should take politics into consideration in their work.washingtonpost.com(See also Jeff Sessions, Department of Justice)

2018.09.04

The Trump White House, citing executive privilege, is withholding from the Senate more than 100,000 pages of records from Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s time as a lawyer in the administration of former President George W. Bush.nytimes.com(See also Supreme Court)

2018.09.05

Donald Trump took his attacks on free speech one step further than usual, suggesting in an interview with a conservative news site that the act of protesting should be illegal.washingtonpost.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)

2018.09.05

Federal prosecutors have issued sweeping subpoenas demanding that millions of North Carolina voter records be turned over to immigration authorities by Sept. 25, with just two months to go before the midterms, sowing chaos in the state’s election machinery, while renewing the Trump administration’s repeatedly discredited claims of widespread voting by illegal immigrants.nytimes.com(See also Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression, Immigration, Department of Justice)

2018.09.11

The Trump administration took nearly ten million dollars from FEMA's budget ahead of the 2018 hurricane season and gave it to ICE to pay for detentions.msnbc.com(See also Immigration, Environment)

2018.10.17

The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the president’s closest foreign allies.washingtonpost.com(See also Saudi Arabia, Foreign Policy)

2018.10.19

Donald Trump broke with his own intelligence agencies, accepting Saudi Arabia’s explanation that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by accident during a fistfight, while the United States’ spy agencies are increasingly convinced that he was assassinated on high-level orders from the Saudi royal court.nytimes.com(See also Saudi Arabia, Corruption)

2018.10.24

When Dopnald Trump calls old friends on one of his iPhones to gossip, gripe or solicit their latest take on how he is doing, American intelligence reports indicate that Chinese spies are often listening — and putting to use invaluable insights into how to best work the president and affect administration policy.nytimes.com(See also Cybersecurity, China, Hypocrisy)

Donald Trump insulted three African-American reporters affiliated, and said the White House may continue to take press passes away from members of the media.cnn.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Racism)

A federal judge ordered the White House to reinstate CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta's full press credentials, which were revoked last week after a tense exchange between the reporter and Donald Trump.buzzfeednews.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)

2018.11.20

Donald Trump said that the U.S. will stand by Saudi Arabia regardless of whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.axios.com(See also Saudi Arabia, Foreign Policy)

2018.11.30

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke accused the House Natural Resources Committee's top Democrat of "drunken" behavior and paying "hush money" after the Democrat called for the secretary to resign for his series of ethics scandals.politico.com(See also Ryan Zinke, Corruption, Department of the Interior)

“It’s hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle,” Zinke wrote on Twitter.

2018.12.03

Donald Trump called for a “full and complete” sentence for his former lawyer Michael Cohen, accusing him of lying about Trump’s business dealings with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign to get reduced jail time.reuters.com(See also Legal Activity, 2016 Campaign)

Several lawyers said that Trump's tweet amounted to witness tampering.